WS announces Canada to London-Gatwick
 

http://westjet2.mediaroom.com/index....3TeKA.facebook

WestJet announces to London-Gatwick by operated 767-300ER aircraft. This route will begin in Spring 2016.

from what canadian city?

As per the press release:

Further announcements on schedules, pricing and launch cities will be communicated later this summer with service commencing in spring 2016.


Funny WS video on the naming of the first widebody destination:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH7V...ature=youtu.be

any guesses? prob calgary?

Always best to keep 'em guessing.

Whilst there a couple of fairly obvious choices of departure cities, there are also a number cities that could be offered exclusively on a summer seasonal weekly basis.

The difference between WJ's service and all the other charter type services both in the past and today can be summed up in one word.

Network.

WJ has an extensive domestic and to a modest degree, international network with which to feed flights from countless locations.

Transat doesn't. They rely on pure O & D traffic. Any leakage is going to hurt them badly.

If I ran an airline based in Iceland, I'd be thinking a few chess moves ahead right now, mostly along the lines of where else to utilize some assets in a few years time.

Yeah, I'm guessing this will be the model. I'm thinking 3x/week year-round service from perhaps YHZ and/or YYC, supplemented by seasonal weekly or 2x weekly flights from places like YXX, YWG or YHM.

Depends on how many aircraft we're talking about, of course.

A headline grabbing gimmick, of course, would be a YXU-LGW flight. And that might actually work, though not sure if YXU could handle a fully loaded 767.

What are you implying here, and why Iceland?

Unless WestJet finds a codeshare partner at LGW, Icelandair need not worry.

Why YHZ? Surely the obvious cities are YVR, YYC and YYZ.

I'll be very curious to see what the class of service will be, if it will stay all Y or if there will be some version of PE/J and/or lieflat beds.

The aircraft configuration has already been announced as 24W, 238Y: http://www.westjet.com/img/fleet/372449-767-EN.jpg

Why would Westjet code their own certain seats as "less desirable"? :confused:

YHZ because WestJet already operates TATL service from there. It's an established gateway for them.

I don't think YYZ or YVR are all that obvious. There would be quite a lot of competition on both those routes. Not sure WestJet could cut through the clutter to really establish themselves.

I think YYC would be the best candidate, given their need to promote the new international terminal. It's their flagship hub and I'd imagine the 767 flights from YYC to Hawaii were a test run for them.

YVR already has too much capacity to LON with 2 747's from BA and a 777 from AC. No chance in hell WS would survive given the international competition from YVR.

On the 767, the less desirable seats all have limited recline due to a bulkhead behind. It is better for us to inform people through the seat map (either at booking or on-line check-in time) than for them to turn up and then realise the seats are less desirable than the average seat.

That's more to do with range of the aircraft than pent up TATL demand in YHZ isn't it? AC already operates to LHR from there, is there room for 2 TATL players in addition to Transat etc?